Tara Byrnes with her 'Uni Skills' baby, Reilly.This week has brought back a number of remarkable memories for Central Queensland University Bundaberg  nursing student Tara Byrnes.

This time last year she recalls being 2 weeks' overdue for the birth of her second child, attending Uni Skills Week at CQU, going into labour in the middle of a lesson, giving birth to a healthy baby boy (Reilly) a few hours later, and being back on campus a few days later for orientation week. Wow!

"I was sitting in a workshop about academic assessment writing when I went into labour. Being my second child I knew I had hours and hours so I got through the rest of the day. I then rang my husband and the bub was born a few hours later. Reilly is still known as the Uni Skills Baby by the staff here at Bundaberg."

"I was back a few days later for O Week ... I just brought the baby with me in a sling."

Tara remembers the first time she breastfed Reilly during orientation week.

"I got a few funny looks, especially from the boys and I just said ‘you are going to be nurses, you will see a lot worse than this, get used to it'."

Tara said after she recovered from ‘placenta brain' (diagnosed by her husband) she found studying very rewarding.

"I thought it would be completely impossible, but it was actually quite easy. The newborn just slept and fed, so I had plenty of time. When I had assignments my husband would organise a few days off to help me with the children. He would also help me proof read by assignments."

"I think he knows just as much about old Flo Nightingale as I do."

Tara Byrnes has managed to combine family life and study amazingly well. She is pictured here with her youngest son Reilly and Hayden who is almost 5.The staff at CQU Bundaberg were always supportive to Tara during her first year, continually making themselves available by chat boards or email if she couldn't make it to class. Reilly also went to lectures and tutorials with Tara at times.  She recalls the staff and the other nursing students were always offering to lend a hand and look after Reilly during lessons.

Tara said she made the decision to become a nurse after she witnessed first-hand the importance of nurses.

Her first son, Hayden now almost 5-years-old, spent some time in hospital as a newborn with no-one really knowing what was wrong with him.

"He had the paediatric surgeon at the Royal Children's Hospital scratching his head. Then a nurse came along with the simplest answer - he was on the wrong milk. It turned out to be right."

"I realised how important nurses are and what a difference they made to patients' lives."

Uni Skills Week is now underway at CQU Bundaberg and up to 300 new students will participate in Orientation Week next week.